Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Game of The Year Edition) Walkthrough & Strategy Guide

Published: Jan 28, 2008

Call of Duty 4 Modern Combat
Guide

Basics for the F.N.G. (F@!#ing New Guy)

Check your basic controls by going into the pause screen and clicking
options. Depending on your platform and choice of human interface, you
will find some control schemes more comfortable than others. Some big differences
for some players on the console controllers will be:

Ducking controls situated on the right joystick instead of the left joystick.

Sprinting is sticky and done exactly like in Killzone; unfortunately,
the duck key is also sticky and not placed on the L2/Left Trigger equivalent.

Sniping and fine aim are done with the same key; snappy target acquiring
basically means standing still to fast-select targets that are "bunched
together" close to the target reticule.

Changing to the sidearm is faster than reloading, unfortunately, that same
tactic will leave you empty if you are facing off against more than one
enemy.

There is always one type of special grenade (90% of the time in campaign,
it is the flashbang). Special grenades and grenades are restocked for a
player if the player dies and restarts from a checkpoint, on the Normal
and recruit difficulties.

In-game cheats (the hidden laptops) can be earned on any difficulty, but
the cheats can only be activated if the game is cleared.

Silent weapons are not heard by enemies, but enemies will notice dead bodies.
Only the "Bad Year" cheat will completely get rid of bodies for purposes
of stealth.

Some other notable basics from countless first-person shooters come
to mind, such as:

Murphy's Law of CombatYou are not Superman; marines and fighter pilots take note.

Do not attempt to Rambo your way through this game. First off, no human
can withstand the impact of modern small arms fire without substantial
assistance from body armor. Secondly, only John Rambo can walk into a Vee-Cee
village forty years after the United States hauled out to rescue the six
quadrillion P.O.W.s still plying the illegal opium fields of the local
Vee-Cee commander who is also known as, "The Butcher of Bang-Phoung" or
some other crap without getting a scratch.

On normal difficulty, getting hit by one or two rounds will be enough
to cut your tour of duty short. On hardened or above, one stray hit will
be enough to kill you.

Murphy's Law of CombatIf the enemy is in range, so are you.

This is very important, although many players are still oblivious to
it. If an enemy is shooting at you, that means they can see you. However,
this also means that they are vulnerable if you choose to fire back.

When taking hits (as opposed to 'taking fire'), your HUD will blink
in the direction you are taking the damage from. Break line of sight and
counter-attack when your health has regenerated.

Murphy's Law of CombatWhen in doubt, empty your magazine.

Enemies will sometimes enter a mode called "Last Stand". This mode is
something players can earn while playing online, whereby a dying soldier
will unload his handgun and make a last-ditch effort to kill his attackers.

Sometimes, you will see enemies who are shot but crawling because they
are not fully dead. Instead of checking their pockets for loose change
(and then having fun while storming the castle), you should instead, empty
the rest of your magazine into the body to make sure they are honestly
dead.

An enemy on last stand can confuse you in tight firefight (conflciting
reports of damage), allowing active enemies to kill you.

Murphy's Law of CombatA sucking chest wound is God's way of telling you to slow down.

Players regenerate life over time. If your HUD is red and bloodied,
you need to pull back to a safe place and recuperate. Otherwise, the next
hit will most likely kill you.

Murphy's Law of CombatThe only thing more accurate than incoming enemy fire, is incoming
friendly fire.

Although you have to try hard to kill friendlies, it can happen if you
maintain a trigger pull and sweep over your own S.A.S. squad (like with
a mini-gun). Although killing non-vital NPCs like the generic privates
and such won't penalize you, getting into the habit of not firing on NPCs
with green names will save you the trouble of not having to restart from
a checkpoint due to friendly fire.

Murphy's Law of CombatIf it's stupid but it works, it's not stupid.

You can ridicule the enemy behavior as being remarkedly unintelligent,
but this is not reality per se. Still, the computer is not letting
you walk over it without a fight. Exploit the enemy artificial idiocy by
running away. Enemies may lose sight of your player and begin to look around
aimlessly.

Either way, you can use it to your advantage. If you back up say, around
a corner, you can turn around and drill the sucker when he rounds the bend.
This usually happens once you realize most enemies won't bother trying
to find you once they lose track of you.

At the same time, enemies are infinite in Call of Duty (unlike
Medal
of Honor). Until you occupy the spawn point (generally a building),
enemies continue to pour out like a badly cliche'd clown car.

You can exploit this by adopting the Battlefield 1942 experience
and simply marching towards a strategic point. Once secured, buildings
no longer spawn enemies.

Murphy's Law of CombatGrunt math: walking point = sniper bait.

Your player is generally the man on point for most missions. However,
in the rare cases you have allied NPCs who are armed, they can help you
draw enemy fire by walking point. The only problem arises when they are
shot by your own gunfire or take too much damage and get killed from enemy
gun fire. In both cases, the mission is failed and you restart.

Murphy's Law of CombatTry to look unimportant, the enemy may be low on ammo.

Stealth plays a larger role in COD4 than in previous games. By staying
prone (console players should hold the duck key) amidst tall grass or "shadowed
grass", most enemy patrols will ignore and bypass you. However, this only
comes into play in a few stages; most of the time, your weapons are not
silenced, and therefore, any attack you make alerts the whole compound.

Murphy's Law of CombatOne enemy is never enough; two is far too many.

As mentioned, switching to your sidearm is faster than reloading. However,
the tactic will not work if you still have enemies left after emptying
your sidearm. Be sure to work close in close quarters combat and use the
knife (or melee) button to quickly dispatch enemies. Stabbing enemies is
faster than switching to your handgun, but only works up close.

Similarly, enemies will melee your character; on normal and above, one
melee will generally kill the target (regardless of the attacker).

Murphy's Law of CombatWhen you have secured the area, don't forget to tell the enemy.

Call of Duty uses the simple concept of "securing territory"
to advance the allied NPCs. Securing an area means a certain number or
type of enemies need to be killed before the game moves on.

For example, in The Bog, enemies will continuously rush the disabled
tank until you take out the RPG soldiers on the rooftop. Once that's done,
you can move away from the tank to the subsequent task. Moving away before
those soldiers are killed will mean mission failure.

Murphy's Law of CombatThe important things are always simple; the simple things, always
hard.

Keep cool and above all, don't lose your head. Get into the rythym of
moving, scouting, taking cover, aiming, shooting, reloading, and repeat
until you come out of it alive. Sometimes even the most basic things are
forgotten when you're taking fire from an unknown source.

Proceed slowly and methodically through each area; after a while, you
will note that you do not always need to secure an area in order to pass
to the next section.

Murphy's Law of CombatThe explosive radius of a hand grenade is always one foot more than
you can jump.

Grenades in Call of Duty are to be greatly feared. They kill
you and enemies if in range (except on recruit) and even exposing a tiny
area of your body to grenade blasts mean you die (such as a partially concealed
doorway).

The game allows you to press the grenade key by moving towards the grenade
indicator to throw it back. However, if you do not have the time or inclination
to throw back explosives, you should find a means of escape. Once the grenade
indicator is gone, you are effectively out of its kill range.

Note - you do not have the same danger indicator
with damaged vehicles. Damaged vehicles will eventually explode
and do the same damage as grenades, but there is no warning with damaged
vehicles.

Murphy's Law of CombatDon't forget, your weapon was made by the lowest bidder.

If you are overly concerned about ammunition, take the enemy's weapons.
Otherwise, your starting weapons are generally well-suited to the mission
at hand. The only exceptions are the sniper missions in the middle of the
game.

An automatic weapon is always preferable, and as you play, you will
note that the ammunition of some guns are shared. Picking up an M4A1 and
a G36C sounds like a plan, until you realize both weapons use the same
stock of ammunition. Take different weapons and you will effectively have
two stocks of ammo to draw from. This helps in intense firefights.